Development of foliage biomass of young spruce and beech stands in the mountain water balance research area

Abstract

The investigation of foliage biomass development including LAI and the growth of spruce and beech stands in the juvenile stage (age 1 to 21 years) represents a special complementary study to long-term research of water balance components on the experimental forest hydrology area Deštné Mountainside. The experiment is located in the Orlické hory Mts. at the altitude of 900 m on a clear-felled area. In 1982 the spruce plantation was established at 1.5 ´ 1.5 m spacing (4,600 plants/ha) and the beech plantation at 1.0 ´ 1.0 m (10,000 plants/ha). According to tending programs applicable to forest stands in the Czech Republic, two improvement fellings were carried out (1995 and 2001) in spruce and none in beech. In 2002, some 1,550 spruce trees/ha (mean height 10.1 m) and 7,440 beech trees/ha (mean height 4.8 m) were recorded. At the end of the first vegetation season in 1982, the dry matter (DM) of foliage in spruce and beech amounted to 35 and 70 kg/ha, respectively. Five years later (1987), these values increased to 770 and 360 kg/ha in spruce and beech, respectively. At a stand age of 21 years, foliage DM was determined to be 11,940 kg/ha for spruce and 3,050 kg/ha for beech. At the same time, the leaf-area index (LAI) was calculated to be 5.55 and 5.94 in spruce and beech, respectively. The method of foliage biomass quantification, based on the determination of foliage DM of mean sample trees and stand density, enabled to acquire complementary data usable in long-term research of the water regime of spruce and beech and simultaneously to provide information on the potential of biomass production and LAI value of both main commercial species in mountain forests of the Czech Republic.